Awesome Short Films

(PG-13: Language) Like many people, filmmaker Adam Rosenberg talks in his sleep. He decided to set up a recorder to capture some of his midnight ramblings, and the result is pretty hilarious. We’re wondering this is how they write episodes of Bad Lip Reading.

(PG-13: Language) High schooler Evan walks us through his overly-complicated preparations for talking to girls. Because chance favors the prepared. The prepared are favored. High Fidelity meets I Love You Man in David Shane and Scott Organ’s rad ’80s comedy short.

(PG-13: Language) Anthony van der Meer claims he worked with the developer of an anti-theft Android app to monitor a phone that he purposefully left to be stolen. We suspect this is a viral ad, but it’s also a riveting film about voyeurism and technology’s threat to privacy.

(PG-13) Contemplating suicide, a man with cannibalistic tendencies remembers the defining moments of his life. Director Nina Gantz’ award-winning stop-motion short is creepy yet tender, and filled with visual and emotional juxtapositions.

Using secret NSA documents as their script, Laura Poitras and Henrik Moltke present a chilling story about the windowless AT&T telcom building at 33 Thomas Street in NYC. The narration by Mr. Robot’s Rami Malek and actress Michelle Williams is perfect. More here.

Director Vitaliy Shushko and a team of talented 3D modelers, compositors, and animators created this stunning short film set in a dystopian future. It favors style and action over plot, but that doesn’t make this futuristic and mysterious anime any less fantastic.

In the Lost Woods, a lonely outcast unwittingly unleashes a terrible power unto the world after playing a trick on a traveling salesman. Ember Lab’s stunning animated short film is an incredible homage to The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.

The neverending battle between our mind and our heart plays out literally in Disney’s animated short film. Also the lungs are the heart’s sidekicks for some reason. Inner Workings will be shown in theaters before screenings of Moana.

Director Ignas Meilunas’ charming animated short introduces us to the man (er, blob) responsible for turning day into night. It turns out he prefers his coffee, books, cars, bikes, and dogs dark too.

Blizzard’s latest short film for its hit fps Overwatch introduces the much-hyped support character Sombra (“Shadow”). Sombra uses her hacking skills to manipulate even the highest ranks of authority for personal gain. Boop!

A gas station clerk on the graveyard shift is rescued from her boredom by a stranger whom she suspects is up to no good. Ena Sendijarevic’s beautifully shot silent film is adult life in a nutshell.

A sandpiper encourages her chick to fetch food on her own. With the help of a new friend, the little one learns that if others can do it, she can do it too. Pixar’s animated short was shown alongside Finding Dory and is also included in Finding Dory home videos.

Stephen Vitale’s short is a fantastic entry into the realm of Star Wars fan films. It follows the story of a girl’s journey to become a Jedi master, but whose eagerness leads her to make a tragic mistake along the way.

“Could you ask him to stop?” A phony psychic gets more than what she bargained for from a caller who had a legitimate request. RocketJump’s Halloween short milks the tension for way too long, but it does have a good first half.

The members of an exclusive club attempt to pull off a big Halloween heist – as they try to steal the skull of the late, great Vincent Price. The latest short from Joe and Lloyd Stas is as offbeat and endearing as ever, though we think Spooky Club is missing one critical member.

Director Iqbal Ahmed’s fascinating and beautifully filmed short documentary introduces us to Steven Kutcher, a man full self-aware of his quirks, who has found a way to make a living – and art, through his love for insects.

Craryville, New York’s Camp Sundown is a summer camp for children who can’t go out during daytime. The kids suffer from Xeroderma pigmentosum, a rare disorder that renders their bodies unable to repair damage caused by exposure to ultraviolet light.

An old vagabond has made it his life’s mission to hunt down fallen angels. Sinister and Doctor Strange writer C.Robert Cargill and director Nikhil Bagat’s proof of concept dark fantasy short film is begging for more screen time.

A hilariously weird animated short by Leonid Shmelkov, in which a rooster has nothing better to do, so decides to amuse himself by wreaking havoc on the farm. We’re not quite sure what we just watched, but we’re smiling.

The snowboard is based on the snurfer, an American invention from 1965. But Wrkshrt and Patagonia heard of Petran, a remote town in Turkey where snow surfing has been around for nearly 300 years. So they went there to check out the snowboard’s forgotten ancestor.

(PG-13) A group of artists spent about a year making separate short videos to recreate The Vulture’s Prey, an episode from the 1967 Spider-Man TV series. There are all kinds of animation styles, as well as some live action, backed by the original’s cheesy dialogue.

In between projects for Pixar, animators Andrew Coats and Lou Hamou-Lhadj created this short film about a sheriff haunted by memories of a tragic mistake he made many as a young man. This is animated filmmaking at its absolute best. Learn about their inspiration here.

We love the illustration style of Benjy Brooke’s animated short, which follows a future traveler who must set out on a long journey through the desert to locate power for her electric car when its battery dies. The sound design by Kenny Kusiak perfectly complements the images.